“Sorry,” said the friendly, helpful, knowledgeable sales rep. “Four-year-olds don’t wear navy leather shoes anymore”

I know why making Pesach is so expensive. It’s because of the shoes.

I went to the shoe store today to buy Shabbos shoes for my boys, Yoni and Danny. Danny also needed weekday shoes.

The friendly, helpful, knowledgeable sales rep measured Danny first and Danny, who’s six, showed him which shoes he liked. Now, the “in” shoes for boys his age are pointy leather Venettini shoes with a double buckle. But he wanted a square-toed clunky Florsheim shoe with Velcro. They were $50 (FIFTY) dollars less than the Venettini ones, but they were ugly.

I bought them anyway. (Good choice, Mom.)

Then we did weekday shoes. His New Balance sneakers (only $35, but second pair for the year) were in shreds. He picked Geox shoes for $75. I didn’t mind (too much) because I knew they would last him through the summer.

We moved on to Yoni. He’s four. He needed Shabbos shoes. They showed me a million pairs — all dainty, girly, patent leather shoes in “pearl gray” and “robin’s-egg blue.” He was almost in tears. I was almost in tears. He wanted Shabbos shoes. Navy leather Shabbos shoes!

“Sorry,” said the friendly, helpful, knowledgeable sales rep. “Four-year-olds don’t wear navy leather shoes anymore.”

“This one does,” I said.